Nina Chechneva held up a rope. “We can tie ourselves to the mast!” she yelled.

“Then we can go down with boat,” Kachka replied. “Good idea.”

“It is better than nothing, Kachka Shestakova!”

“If we die here,” Zoya Kolesova screamed into the wind, “we die with honor!”

“Shut up!” Kachka and Nina yelled at her.

Nina looked behind Kachka, then spun in a circle. “The dragons!”

“What of them?”

“They are gone!”

Kachka now did her own turn and Nina was right. “They left us!”

“I told you we cannot trust the dragons!”

Debating whether to slap Nina—some days she truly deserved a good slap—a gold tail dropped behind Zoya and wrapped around her waist. The tail yanked her up and out of the boat.

Angry, Nina yelled, “What about—”

A brown tail snatched up Nina, carrying her away. A few seconds later, a black tail wrapped around Kachka and she was yanked from the doomed boat.

The black tail lifted her up and over, placing her on Branwen’s back.

“Hold on!” Branwen screamed at her.

* * *

Kachka grabbed hold of Brannie’s chain mail and flattened herself against her back.

Brannie girded her loins and dove headfirst into the nightmare ahead.

She’d rather take on legions and legions of Zealots than fight nature itself. With soldiers and warriors, Brannie had a chance. She could watch their eyes and guess their next move. She could see how they ran toward her and find the weak spot that would take them down. Even a quick shoulder move would give her enough information to block a sword to the gut before cutting off a leg or ripping out a spleen.

But nature had no warnings. It had no weak spots. It had no move that told Brannie what she could do to stop it or wear it down. All she could do was dive and dodge and pray. She didn’t pray during battle but she prayed now. She had to.

Following behind Keita, Brannie and the others went up high until they were able to go over the wall of water, their claws skimming the top for what felt like a mile or so until the wall crashed down. Most likely taking out the Northlanders’ boat in the process.

But the wall of water was only part of their problem.

As the group flew, nature threw everything else it had at them. Rain came down on them in sheets of never-ending water. Thunder crashed around them, seemingly shaking the entire world. Lightning bolts came directly at them as if thrown with great aim.

The only thing that helped them? Their past battles with Lightning dragons. They’d all been trained to face Lightnings. Even Keita, who’d been forced to escape the Olgeirsson Horde a few decades back.